Fences Do Make
Good Neighbors:
Prison Is Next-Door

By

Naomi Schaefer Riley

Updated Nov. 18, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

After viewing an array of small, dull houses in New Jersey, my husband and I drove over the Tappan Zee Bridge, crossing the majestic Hudson River. We assumed that New York's Westchester County -- the suburbs made famous by John Cheever and by 1950s movies of middle-class angst -- was out of our price range. But why not just look?

We ended up finding our Mecca, a town with beautiful, affordable houses on quiet tree-lined streets. As it...